


Ilovu

by holyhael



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Office, Customer Service & Tech Support, F/F, Femslash, Fluff, Women of Supernatural
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-12
Updated: 2014-11-12
Packaged: 2018-02-25 04:02:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2607767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holyhael/pseuds/holyhael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hannah works for the Mount Carroll Volcano Research Center, and Charlie is the center's tech support.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ilovu

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimers: based off of my single interaction with someone who claimed to be tech support but i have my suspicions that they weren't. i don't own a windows computer, but i've had the same problems the last times i used one. i googled all of the solutions to hannah's problems because i'm terrible with tech.
> 
> for tumblr user casincharge, who asked for _"Oh gosh ummm 'i keep callling tech support because you’re helpful and also your voice is really cute' (found this on an au list - Hannah has tech problems and she calls and gets Charlie to help her) :)"_. this isn't exactly that, but it's really close, and it's really cute imo.
> 
> title comes from yael meyer's song of the same name, just because it's a pretty song and i don't know what else to call this.

Their cramped office is full of tension. Hannah wishes she could go home and take a bath, with candles, salts, and a good book. Normally, her work is easygoing, but this is the first conference the Mount Carroll Volcano Research Center has organized, and everyone - even Hannah’s fairly laid-back boss Muriel - is stressed.

The conference is in five days, and hardly half the work is finalized. Information pamphlets are still being wrung through two editors who have opposing ideas, name tags have been printed but not sleeved in the plastic covers, the cater is having trouble communicating with their group, and - most pressing to Hannah at the moment - the four hundred USB flash drives they ordered just arrived, but the information that must be pasted in each one is not complete. Presenters were given a deadline of noon the Monday before the conference - today - and even though the clock is closing in on eleven o’clock, one fourth of the presenters haven’t sent Hannah their information.

Hannah types out a reminder email to Dr Devereaux and sends it off. He’s one of the top researchers in their field, and he said he would prepare a presentation, but Hannah hasn’t heard from him since he agreed to take part in their conference, and she doubts he’ll message her back before the hour is up. That’s too bad. Hannah was looking forward to meeting Dr Devereaux and learning what he had to teach.

She’s about to compose a new email to another delayed presenter when a new message appears in her inbox. It’s from Dr Deverea ux.

The only content is an attachment labeled _PRESENTATION_. Hannah follows the steps to download, and within moments the file is copied to her computer, taking only ten seconds where other presentation files have taken several minutes. His presentation must be predominantly oral, or he must have physical charts with him. Whichever it is, Hannah is just glad Dr Devereaux will be joining the conference after all.

She opens the file he sent over. The slideshow program is notoriously slow to start up on Hannah’s computer, so while she waits for it to load, she walks over to the break room to have one of the cupcakes Samandriel brought in for the office. The way Hannah likes to eat her cupcakes is to swipe her finger around the frosting, gathering just a little bit, and then sucking her finger clean. It can take ten to twenty minutes to clean the frosting off this way, depending on the size of the cupcake and how much frosting adorns the pastry. This cupcake is probably the largest Hannah’s ever had the delight to eat, so it’ll take a lot of time to clean the frosting off. Then, when all the frosting’s gone, the spongey cake can be broken off piece-by-piece with Hannah’s sticky fingers.

Walking back to her desk, Hannah runs her index finger around the swirl of frosting and brings her finger to her mouth. Sugary goodness spreads over her tongue, bringing a smile to her lips. She makes a mental note to thank Samandriel for the treats again.

A new window has popped up on Hannah’s screen when she returns, and it’s not the slideshow program. Frowning, she sinks down into her chair, sets her cupcake to the side, and wipes her finger dry on her trousers. _WARNING! NEW VIRUS DETECTED_ , the pop up says, backgrounded in red. Beneath that is a link to run a system-wide scan. Hannah clicks the link anxiously. She’s never had a virus on her computer before, but her brother caught them regularly. According to Gabriel, it’s because Lucifer spends too much time on porn sites, which Hannah is thankful not to be able to dispute or affirm, although she has her suspicions.

Seconds after clicking the link, her computer screen goes black.

“What the…” Hannah mutters. No amount of moving her mouse or clicking changes anything. Her screen remains black.

Looking over her shoulder, Hannah doesn’t see anyone. All of her coworkers must have gone upstairs, where their graphics team is working. She sighs.

There’s only one thing she can do.

Picking up the office phone number, she dials the extension for the university’s tech support.

The phone rings three times before a bright but bored-sounding voice answers. “You’ve reached the tech center, my name’s Charlie. Have you tried turning it off and back on again?”

“Turning it-” Hannah stops herself. No, she hasn’t. She presses down the power button in the upper righthand corner, and after a few seconds, she pushes it again. Within moments, the black screen turns blue. Hannah furrows her eyebrows. “Well, my computer screen is no longer black; it’s blue.”

“Blue, huh?” Charlie repeats. Hannah hears the click of keys from Charlie’s end of the line. “Sky blue or Sonic blue?”

“Sonic blue?” Hannah echoes. Her confused expression deepens. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

“You know, the hedgehog?” Charlie prompts. Hannah is silent as she thinks about a blue hedgehog - how does one even dye a hedgehog’s spines? “Never mind. You’ve probably got the blue screen of death.”

“No, my computer can’t die. I have important documents on it. I need to work on it.”

“Don’t worry, I can fix it. Relax,” Charlie says, and Hannah realizes her shoulders are tense and her stomach is in knots. She heeds Charlie’s words and breathes deeply, forcing her body to loosen. “It’s not the end of the world. Reboot your computer again, and before it can Blue Screen you, click the F8 key a lot.”

Hannah follows her orders. All the while, Charlie’s steady breath keeps her company, the keystrokes she made gone.

The computer turns on to a black screen again, but between two blinks, words appear.

“It worked,” Hannah says, looking at the text.

“Are there words? The ones you’d be looking for are ‘safe mode with networking’.”

It doesn’t take long for Hannah to find those words. “Yes. Do I click them?”

“You catch on fast,” Charlie says. “Yeah. Click them. It’ll boot you up to a stripped down version of Windows.

“Okay.” She clicks the words, and her laptop appears to be booting up like normal, but when it reaches the login page, the background is black instead of a textured blue. “It’s showing me the login page, but it looks different.”

“That’s normal. Just sign in like you usually would.”

She selects her username, Hannah Baker, and types in her password. Her login information is accepted, and within moments her screen shows her desktop, except the background picture of her dog Bella has been replaced by blackness. All of her desktop icons remain unchanged.

“Should my background be black?” Hannah asks.

“Yeah, and it should say ‘safe mode with networking’ in the top center, or something like that. Okay, now I want you to go to your start menu and find ‘Computer’. It should be on the right side. On the top of the window that comes up, there should be a button that says ‘system properties’. I want you to click that for me. You there?”

Hannah follows Charlie’s directions to the letter. “Yes.”

“If you aren’t in advanced settings, go there now.”

Hannah is not, so she finds the link that directs her to the advanced settings in a new window.

“There’s a section called ‘start up and recovery’. Click the setting in there and uncheck the ‘automatically restart’ option. It should be under the ‘system failure’ section.”

Charlie and her soothing voice help Hannah through the rest of the steps, and after ten minutes, when Hannah restarts her computer again, it boots up normally without the deadly blue screen. It turns out that the file Dr Devereaux sent her contained a virus. Why would he give her that? Unless it was a mistake?

“Dr Devereaux?” Charlie repeats. “No way. He’s a smart guy. He could almost give me a run for my money, but I’m a genius. This isn’t even the first time I’ve had to clean up his mess.”

“It isn’t?”

“Trust me, it’s not even worth it to contact him _ever_. Unless you’re in the mood to deal with me again.”

Hannah is usually a person who knows what she’s going to say before speaking. At the very least, she isn’t a person who blurts or interrupts for that matter, but for some reason, the next words she says burst out of her before going through her filter.

“I wouldn’t mind dealing with you again.”

All she hears from Charlie is her breathing, too loud to be normal. Hannah wonders if she can also hear Charlie’s heartbeat, but then she realizes that’s her own pulse pounding in her ear in a heavy, obtrusive rhythm that nearly makes her miss Charlie’s answer: “I wouldn’t mind that either.”

Hannah takes a deep breath and smiles.

+

The next day, Hannah busies herself with loading all the information for their conference onto the four hundred USB flash drives that will be passed out to the attendees. It’s long and tedious work that does not require Hannah’s full attention all the time, so while she waits for the file folder to paste into the drives, she finds her mind wandering to Charlie and her gaze wandering to the phone.

They left things off fairly ambiguously yesterday. Soon after they expressed their feelings of not minding each other, Muriel interrupted, needing Hannah’s help with the name tags - some of the names were printed incorrectly, Alastair Duncan becoming Alistair Deacon, Congressperson Jody Mills becoming Congressperson Jodie Mills. Hannah bid Charlie goodbye, Charlie repeated the parting, and their call ended. Afterward, Hannah pushed down the urge to call Charlie again and went on with her day. When she got home, she drew the bath she promised herself, but she couldn’t concentrate on the book she brought with her because she could only imagine Charlie narrating. _The day broke grey and dull. The clouds hung heavily, and there was a rawness in the air that suggested snow. A woman servant came into the room in which a child was sleeping and drew the curtains._ Even Charlie’s imaginary voice made the most mundane of passages exciting.

Hannah can connect four USB flash drives into her computer at one time. It takes several moments for them to be recognized, and it takes up to five minutes now to download the files onto them, and the duration is only increasing, her computer straining.

The pile of empty USB drives barely has a dent in it when Hannah discovers that one of her USB ports isn’t working. She doesn’t even consciously make the decision to call the tech center until the phone is ringing against her ear.

“You’ve reached the tech center, my name’s Charlie. Have you tried turning it off and back on again?”

Charlie’s welcome voice makes Hannah exhale a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. “Hi, Charlie. It’s Hannah again. One of my USB ports has failed.”

“Ooh.” She _tsk_ s her tongue. “That’s a lot more difficult than the blue screen of death. I might have to diagnose in person.”

“Really?” Hannah’s heart leaps up and beats as fast as a small bird’s wings. She swallows, but her heart stubbornly remains in her throat. “That’s - that’s great. Fine. It’s fine.”

Charlie laughs; even though it’s directed at Hannah, it’s the most beautiful sound she’s ever heard.

“All right, Hannah. I’ll be right there.”

Their phone lines disconnect.

For a moment, Hannah just sits there, hands in her lap, staring at the daunting pile of USB drives, and replaying Charlie’s parting words in her head.

_All right, Hannah. I’ll be right there._

Charlie is coming to the office.

She suppresses the urge to grin. She should get as much work as she can done until Charlie arrives. The USB drives docked into her laptop need to be ejected, she has to ascertain which port is malfunctioning, and she needs to make sure that an empty USB drive does not make it into the finished pile.

She is focused, like a laser.

Until Charlie comes in.

“Knock knock,” a familiar voice says behind Hannah. Hannah turns around in her chair and is met by a woman about as old as she is, perhaps younger, with fierce orange hair that falls over her breasts. She takes Hannah in with her large eyes and grins an infectious grin that has Hannah smiling back. “Hannah?”

“You’re Charlie,” Hannah says and rises from her chair. She holds out her hand. “Hannah Baker. I’m interning at the Mount Carroll Volcano Research Center.”

Charlie reaches forward and grabs Hannah’s hand in hers. “Charlie Bradbury, the university’s tech genius.” Her hand is bony and cold, but Hannah doesn’t want to let go. Since she must, she does, but not before prolonging the handshake as long as she can. “So, this is your laptop?” she guesses, gesturing with her now free hand.

“Yes.” Hannah steps aside so Charlie can sit down in her seat, but she doesn’t move far. Her side brushes against Charlie’s, and since Charlie doesn’t say anything about it, Hannah doesn’t move. Charlie surveys the screen for a moment before beginning to type. Gabriel would probably say she’s working her magic, and that’s exactly what it looks like to Hannah: magic.

Magic though it may be, it isn’t terribly interesting for Hannah to stand over Charlie’s shoulder and watch her work, and Hannah’s been awake since four in the morning. She covers her mouth and yawns, letting out a small noise as she breathes out.

“Not exactly riveting, I know.” Charlie looks over her shoulder at Charlie, wearing a smile. “How about you go get some coffee? I might have to be here a while. Oh, and would you get me some? Black with two teaspoons of sugar. Add the sugar before you add water!”

“Sure.” Her hand falls to Charlie’s back and touches her lightly. Charlie’s smile widens, and Hannah mirrors her, although her smile is probably much more awkward. She nods and tells Charlie she’ll be right back while Charlie turns back to the computer to work. On Hannah’s way out, though, she catches Charlie looking over her shoulder again to watch Hannah’s retreat. A blush blooms on her cheeks at being caught. Hannah just smiles and continues on to the office kitchen.

Her beverage of choice is an Earl Grey Lavender blend, which she always keeps a stock of in the office pantry with her coworkers’ teas and coffees. She steals some of Daniel’s instant expresso, knowing he wouldn’t mind, or perhaps notice, if a serving was taken.

When both hers and Charlie’s beverages are done, Hannah carries them back to her desk. Charlie is as she left her, diligently typing away and fixing the laptop’s problem. Hannah places Charlie’s coffee to the left of the computer, and Charlie startles.

“Whoa. Way to sneak up on a girl.” She smiles gratefully at Hannah. “Thanks. I think I’ve figured out your problem. It’s actually kind of common when you have a production line like this.” She waves to indicate the pile of USB drives. “I disabled and re-enabled the USB controller, and as long as you don’t abuse them again, the ports should be just fine.”

“All right, thank you. I’ll try to work slower. We have to have every USB drive filled by Saturday.”

“Yikes,” Charlie winces sympathetically. “You know, I can come down with my laptop and help you out. I’ve got a Mac _and_ extra USB ports. Hold on, I’ll be right back.”

Charlie dashes out before Hannah can get a word in, leaving Hannah standing in the middle of the small room and staring at the doorway Charlie ran out of. She hears the thunder of Charlie’s footsteps going upstairs, followed quickly by the sound of the door creaking open and then banging closed. Hannah lets out a breath.

_Charlie is coming back. I better not be standing in the same place when she does._

Hannah sinks down into her seat and adjusts it to her liking. Charlie had tipped her screen backwards, so Hannah leans it forward again.

She minimizes the window Charlie had open so she can get back to loading the USB drives, but, hold on. Hannah stares at her background. It’s different; the picture of Bella is the same, but there are words in the center.

_what do you say to a dinner date?_

When Charlie returns, Hannah says she would love to have dinner with her.

 

**Author's Note:**

> i ask for prompts sometimes on my hannah tumblr sideblog, lovehannahspn, which you should check out.
> 
> the book hannah was reading in the bath is Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham, which i have not read yet but i've been meaning to.


End file.
